Habitat patch size and tree species richness shape the bird community in urban green spaces of rapidly urbanizing Himalayan foothill region of India

Abstract

Rapid urbanization and associated biodiversity loss is rampant globally but especially a cause of concern for developing countries. However, numerous studies investigating the role of urban green spaces have established their key role in conserving larger suites of species in urban area.Yet our knowledge is lopsided due to lag in research in developing countries. We examined how landscape and local scale features of urban green spaces influence bird species richness, density, fine-foraging guild richness and composition during breeding and non-breeding season. This is the first study of this nature in one the Himalayan states of India. We quantified landscape level variables in the 250m buffer around 18 urban green spaces. We sampled vegetation and bird community during breeding and non-breeding season through 52 intensive sampling point spread across 18 urban green spaces. Size of the urban green space at landscape level and tree richness at the local scale emerged as important predictor variables influencing bird species richness, density and richness of imperiled insectivorous guild across seasons. Urban green spaces within education institutions and offices experiencing much less management supported higher bird richness and density whereas city parks were the most species poor. Community composition was affected more strongly by built-up cover and barren area in the matrix and also by tree species richness within urban green spaces. City planners should focus on establishing larger city parks during design stage whereas biodiversity potential of the existing urban green spaces could be enhanced by selecting native tree and shrub species to increase overall habitat complexity.

Promoting urban ecological resilience through the lens of avian biodiversity

“…The presence of mature trees in urban green spaces increase both bird taxonomic and functional richness (Morelli et al, 2017), and water bodies or rivers/streams increase both taxonomic richness and functional diversity (Morelli et al, 2017;Suri et al, 2017;Barbosa et al, 2020). Numerous studies provide overwhelming support for the importance of woody vegetation in increasing overall avian biodiversity (Evans et al, 2009;Fontana et al, 2011;Morelli et al, 2017;Kaushik et al, 2022) and the richness and abundance of native resident bird species (Rico-Silva et al, 2021). However, heterogeneous habitat designs have the strongest positive effects on avian biodiversity (Clergeau et al, 2001;Evans et al, 2009).…”

“…Larger urban green spaces generally provide greater benefits to avian biodiversity (i.e., species richness, Shannon diversity, and functional diversity) than smaller spaces (Evans et al, 2009;Kang et al, 2015;Callaghan et al, 2018;Kaushik et al, 2022). However, small parks can still be important for avian diversity if several are distributed throughout an urban area.…”

Community structure, ecology, and conservation issues of avifauna of two human-dominated landscapes in Faridpur district, Bangladesh during Covid-19 pandemic

“…A good number of native tree species are present in the study area, which provides the proper a wide array of opportunities for livelihood to different groups of bird species in the study area; thus, number of birds species is higher in trees (Fontana et al, 2011;Kaushik et al, 2022).…”

Avian species richness and tropical urbanization gradients: Effects of woodland retention and human disturbance

“…Urban bird diversity is positively associated with the size of urban green areas (Kaushik et al, 2021; Sorte et al, 2020). Options for enhancing urban biodiversity by increasing the amount of urban green space in currently urbanized locations are typically limited and expensive, although there is some potential for retrofitting green walls and roofs (Belcher et al, 2019; Collins et al, 2017; Orsini et al, 2014; Wang et al, 2017) or directly converting impervious surfaces to green space (Qian et al, 2015).…”